Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, exited the U.S. Open in the fourth round on Sunday, relinquishing her world number one status after falling to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko at Arthur Ashe Stadium in a hard-fought 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 match.
Swiatek, the Polish four-time Grand Slam winner, had maintained a perfect record without dropping a set until Sunday. However, she couldn’t withstand the determined charge from the confident 20th seed.
As a result of this loss, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka is set to take over the world number one ranking, a position Swiatek had held since April 2022. Swiatek expressed her emotions, saying, “When you lose it, there are some sad emotions. This season was really tough and intense. It’s not easy to cope with all of this stuff.”
The turning point of the match came when Ostapenko fired a crisp forehand winner to break Swiatek’s serve on match point, extending her head-to-head record against Swiatek to 4-0. Ostapenko’s next opponent will be American sixth seed Coco Gauff, who secured a victory over Caroline Wozniacki.
Ostapenko explained her strategy, stating, “I knew I had to play my game. I have to be aggressive because that’s what she doesn’t really like, and I was just fighting until the very last point.”
Swiatek struggled from the start, committing a double fault and a pair of forehand errors that allowed Ostapenko to break her serve in the first game. Although she managed to break back and take the first set, Swiatek’s game began to unravel in the second set.
In the second set, Swiatek handed Ostapenko a break with a forehand error, and she failed to convert a break-point opportunity in the ninth game, allowing Ostapenko to level the match at 1-1.
Swiatek’s performance deteriorated in the third set while Ostapenko continued to elevate her game, winning five consecutive games to secure the victory. This win marked Ostapenko’s best run at the hardcourt major, as she had previously failed to advance past the third round in six main draw appearances.
Ostapenko attributed her success to playing with a “nothing to lose” mentality and seizing the moments when she had chances. Swiatek, on the other hand, was left puzzled by her drastic change in performance and expressed disappointment with her hardcourt major results this year.
Ostapenko acknowledged the upcoming challenge of facing Gauff, whom she had beaten in the fourth round of the Australian Open earlier in the year. She anticipated another tough battle, saying, “I don’t expect any easy matches here at the Grand Slams. So I’m ready for another battle.”
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